Album Review: Agoraphobic Nosebleed – “Arc EP”

Agoraphobic Nosebleed somehow went from being an insider’s dream concept to a full fledged legacy band (in certain circles). The closest thing we still have left to anything as vitriol fueled as Brutal Truth, yet with the industrialized power/edge of Pig Destroyer/and the relevance of Drugs of Faith to boot.

The ARC EP finds the band in top form, a sleaz-i-fied riff fest two minutes into “Not A Daughter” the first and foremost real display of a burlier and at times pretty much southern rock sound for the band. You read that right. There are some real barn burner’s thrown in amidst the slog.

The EP- harsh vocals from Kat on full blast – is a true headbanger’s oasis of skull crunching pit worthy riffs that can appeal to fans of stoner, grind, fringe hardcore and even slow death metal at times. It is awesome the band continue to fearlessly evolve, just as Black Flag once did, for example. That’s one surefire way to stay relevant, unless you make a Cold Lake (which I secretly like).

Even the record art is more of a fine art mutation than some of the shockier stuff at bedbathsaltsandbeyond.spreadshirt.com.

“Not A Daughter” ends with a horn thrower of a riff worthy of Alabama Thunderpussy’s much missed Staring At The Divine-era, albeit a lot more evil. It’ll remind you Richard lives in Virginia (I think he still does, at least).

Anyway, this is the sickest fuckin’ band and you know it (or oughta). They make me want to barf out of my eyes. It’s pure bottled charge and pay off after payoff. “Deathbed” is a grungier dirge than the majority of recent melvins and us ugly as the S/T Eyehategod stuff, complete with low male death vocals and synthetic drum poundage. “Gnaw” has some stuff so knuckle dragging in it that it almost sounds like Xibalba was an industrial crust band. Fuck yeah!!!

I wish this record was more than three gloriously hellbent songs and was at least six. It’s a monster anyway and nonetheless will exhaust you with awesome adrenaline rush wall of metal power. But in a flaming heap afterwards you nonetheless want more material, a liberal bloodlusting for good art that will thaw any frozen corpse’s heart in a guitarbang of volume, aesthetic and road.

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Band Spotlight

Ohio's Bes are a calamitous racket of alt-rock infused heavy sounds and have recently released the very worth your time Pieces Missing EP. Fans of Torche, Failure or even some KEN Mode will find stuff to latch on to here. I don't know how intentional it was but I hear a lot of late nineties influence in some of what this band is doing, but paired with an even more aggressive edge befitting our times.
Recommended Track: "Lost It All".